Urban Outfitters sweatshirt stirs outrage, draws apology

An Urban Outfitters sweatshirt was the talk of social media Monday – just for all the wrong reasons.

The retailer was taking a pounding after it offered for sale a “Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt” that looked like it could have been splattered with blood during campus unrest in May 1970, including shootings that killed four students.

Urban Outfitters selling what looks like a blood-soaked Kent State sweatshirt http://t.co/aGgolT139Q via @sarahrich pic.twitter.com/WC6t3TlwWo
— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) September 15, 2014

Urban Outfitters apologized, saying it “was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that took place at Kent State in 1970.” The company said there was no blood on the shirt.

Urban Outfitters sincerely apologizes for any offense our Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt may have caused. It (cont) http://t.co/o3oKyPJFu8
— Urban Outfitters (@UrbanOutfitters) September 15, 2014

Kent State president Beverly Warren tweeted: “We take great offense to those using our pain for publicity & profit.”

May 4 was a watershed moment for our country. We take great offense to those using our pain for publicity & profit. http://t.co/UiJB3fGJNw
— Beverly Warren (@BevWarren19) September 15, 2014

The university’s full statement from its website:

May 4, 1970, was a watershed moment for the country and especially the Kent State family. We lost four students that day while nine others were wounded and countless others were changed forever. We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit. This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts the Kent State community today. We invite the leaders of this company as well as anyone who invested in this item to tour our May 4 Visitors Center, which opened two year ago, to gain perspective on what happened 44 years ago and apply its meaning to the future.

That is not a vintage shirt that is a horrible and offensive joke @UrbanOutfitters u guys can't possibly be that stipid
— Clark (@cbgeerlings) September 15, 2014